ADVANCING TONGON The mine will continue its work on infrastructure and economic development initiatives
Despite setbacks with regard to its Obuasi joint venture (JV) and the weak market conditions, gold mining company Randgold Resources reports that its other African projects are progressing.
The Tongon gold mine, in Côte d’Ivoire, is focused on sustaining the increased throughput trend achieved last year as the full benefits of its performance improvement programme start flowing through.
As of January, the expansion and upgrade of the mine, owned by Randgold, was completed, aside from the fourth-stage crusher which was scheduled for commissioning during the first quarter of this year.
“Tongon is maintaining a strong emphasis on throughput and efficiencies to ensure that it remains profitable in a low gold price scenario and as it moves into a full tax-paying position now that its tax holiday has ended. It has already paid back its investment capital and has a relatively modest sustaining capital requirement, and a robust cost profile going forward,” Randgold CEO Mark Bristow says.
He commends the successful outcome of Côte d’Ivoire’s recent elections, adding that Randgold looked forward to working with the new government in the same spirit of constructive partnership that has characterised the relationship over the course of the company’s long engagement with the country.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Randgold’s Kibali gold mine continues to deliver on all aspects of its business plan and is likely to exceed last year’s production target of 600 000 oz, Bristow notes.
In January, the continuing expansion of the mine was also on target, with the development of its underground operation still ahead of schedule.
Exploration has continued to develop several targets along the KZ trend with strong trench results highlighting the potential for near mine oxide ounces at Tete Bakangwe and Sessengue SW. While greenfield exploration is an essential part of its long-term strategy, brownfield success provides the mine with valuable optionality and the ability to protect its key assets in the low gold-price environment.
“Despite the challenging market conditions currently facing the gold mining industry, Randgold continues to invest in its future, in line with its strategy of creating value for all its stakeholders through the discovery of gold deposits and their development into profitable mines.
“We believe the north-eastern DRC holds rich potential for such discoveries and we trust the country’s government will partner [with] us in our drive to develop a major gold mining frontier there, among other things, by ensuring that the current negotiations [on] a new mining code result in one that will justify the capital already spent and attract further investment,” Bristow comments.
In January, Mining Weekly reported that Randgold had entered into three new JV agreements with juniors in the north-east of the DRC to look for gold deposits.
The company has partnered with TSX-listed Kilo Goldmines, Deveron Resources and Loncor Resources to bring its landholdings in the DRC to 6 539 km2.
In December, Randgold informed AngloGold Ashanti that it wished to terminate the conditional investment agreement concluded in September last year, for a JV to redevelop the Obuasi mine, in Ghana, as the proposed investment did not meet Randgold’s criteria.